'Sometimes you feel one voice doesn't make a difference': How small business changed paid parental leave

Tess McCabe cried when she found out the law around paid parental leave for small business owners is going to be changed.

"Sometimes you feel like one voice doesn't make a difference," McCabe says. "I was so shocked. It was exactly what self employed people want, the choice to take those blocks of paid parental leave in the first year in a way that suits them."

Tess McCabe campaigned for changes to paid parental leave for small business owners. Credit:Justin McManus

The Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer last week released the Women's Economic Security Statement which included reforms to paid parental leave, a scheme she described as "a pretty rigid system".

"It doesn't take into account that there are many women who are self-employed, who are running their own small businesses, and who can't spend 18 weeks away from their small business," Ms O'Dwyer said. “We want to be able to let these women have the flexibility to choose to take their paid parental leave in blocks, in a way that suits them.”

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It was an emotional moment for Ms McCabe who first started advocating for changes to paid parental leave over three years ago.

The small business owner's claim for parental leave under the government's scheme, which allows for 18 weeks of leave for mothers paid at the minimum wage of $719.35 a week before tax , was rejected after Ms McCabe did not meet the scheme's requirement for all the leave to be taken in one go.

McCabe says this requirement is impractical for many small business owners and she wrote a letter to her then local federal member of parliament, Ms O'Dwyer, who was also the small business minister at the time.

"You say these things and even if you go to the effort of writing a letter so often you are met with a proforma response," says McCabe. "I know for myself, my baby making days are over I am never going to access that paid parental leave again but it doesn't mean it won't help my friends or family or people in the community."

Jewellery designer Emily Green also had her claim under the government's paid parental leave scheme rejected and spoke to Fairfax Media in 2016 about the problems with the scheme for small business owners.

"That was essentially $10,000 that I missed out on and it means you have to go back to work earlier," she says. "The reality is with small business you can't just dip out for 18 weeks. You really simply can't stop ... a small business can't keep going without attention for that period."